1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lens-fitted photo film unit having a plane mirror for bending a photographic optical path, and a method for printing an image photographed with this lens-fitted photo film unit.
2. Background Arts
A well-known lens-fitted photo film unit is preloaded with an unexposed photo filmstrip. The lens-fitted photo film unit is widely used because of its low price and facility to take a photograph with easy operations just after purchase. The lens-fitted photo film unit has been miniaturized in recent years. Using an APS film cartridge the size of which is smaller than a 35 mm film cartridge, for example, makes it possible to reduce the size of a cartridge chamber and an exposure area, so that a unit body becomes thin.
In the conventional lens-fitted photo film unit, the photo filmstrip is disposed in such a manner as to be orthogonal to the optical axis of a taking lens. Accordingly, the thickness of the unit body has to be larger than the focal length of the taking lens. To solve this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 7-64178, 7-120823 and 7-209741 disclose lens-fitted photo film units with a mirror for perpendicularly bending a photographic optical path. According to these film units, since the photo filmstrip is disposed in parallel with the optical axis of the taking lens, it is possible to thin the unit body without changing the focal length.
An image obtained by a mirror-equipped photographic optical system, however, is flipped horizontally or vertically on the photo film, with respect to an image taken by a conventional photographic optical system. In other words, a photographed image from an emulsion surface side or a film base side of the photo film becomes reversed with respect to the photographed image by the conventional photographic optical system.
In printing the image from the photo film to photographic paper, the orientation of the photo film is confirmed with reference to the orientation of characters which are printed on the edge of the photo film as a side print. Thus, when an ordinary photo film is used in the mirror-equipped photographic optical system, there is a problem that a printing error such as reverse printing occurs because the photographed image in the photo film is flipped with respect to the side print. To solve this problem, it is considerable to process the photo film used in the mirror-equipped photographic optical system separately from that used in a conventional photographic optical system, but it is troublesome.
In above Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 7-209741, information indicating that a flipped image is photographed is optically or magnetically recorded on a photo film. In terms of reducing the manufacture cost, however, it is impossible to provide a magnetic or optical recording device in the lens-fitted photo film unit.